Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: My advice to somebody who had an idea, who wanted to start something but maybe had some trepidation there would be to, you can, you can kind of pursue both at the same time. And I think that that's okay. You don't have to be full time for it to be a real business. I think we got that a lot in our early, early career and early with barbies, people would be like, how's your little business? And it's like, it's, you know, it's so, it can feel so demeaning, but it's like you know your own business and you know that that's not true. And I think that my advice would be to just, if you've got trepidation around it and if you've got something stable, it's okay to start part time. It's okay to commit 10 hours a week to it and get started that way. It's still a real business.
[00:00:40] Speaker B: Everybody, welcome back. Today's episode is cool because it's a great business story and two really wonderful, interesting, charismatic people. And it's also got a little bit of a personal side to it for, for me with cadence as well. Two people that have built something that is really cool, interesting, and just a remarkable story of someone, two people deciding, let's just do this thing that we like to do, and then making it happen. And not just like, making it happen, but like, really hustling to make it happen.
Really, really awesome story. Lots to, to learn from it. Before you get to it, though, please subscribe to the podcast. Turn on your notifications. My name is Aram Arslanian and this is one step beyond.
All right, Jess and Willow, welcome to the show. Hi.
[00:01:44] Speaker C: Thank you. Yeah, so excited to be here. Ramdez.
[00:01:47] Speaker B: All right, so for the uninitiated, for those who don't know, who are you and what do you do?
[00:01:55] Speaker C: Well, I'm Willow. I am the co founder of Barbie's bartending. Jess is going to fill that other gap and be the other co founder here. We own a mobile cocktail class company that launched in Nashville, Tennessee just over five years ago, and we're now located in eleven regions across the US. In addition to that, I am also a cadence team member from the last five years. So this is a collision of worlds for me.
[00:02:20] Speaker A: Like Willow said, I'm the other half of barbies and I almost feel like an adopted family member. Into the cadence, into the cadence family here. I've been along the ride, too, through Willow, along this journey.
[00:02:32] Speaker B: Heck yeah. All right, barbies. So, because I've been able to, like, watch this thing grow from, like, just first hearing about it is like, oh, that's that cool thing that willow does on the side to it being like, oh, no, this is my gig now.
It's been such a cool journey. But let's start with just the simple stuff. Could you explain, really, what barbies is and what you actually do, and then we'll talk about, like, how you've grown.
[00:02:59] Speaker C: Yeah, for sure. So what we do is we offer private, mobile cocktail classes in people's spaces. So we bring all of the things that you would need to learn. Two or three cocktails, either in your home, your vacation rental, your office space, wherever cocktails can be, mocktails can be, we can be there. We bring everything. We lead a class, typically 60 to 90 minutes, where you're going to learn all the things about your chosen cocktails, plus more bartending knowledge, and hopefully have a really good time. The heart of our classes are connection conversation, and we really make it a point to hire team members who are just zesty and fun and spirited because, you know, we think it's a privilege walking into people's celebrations and intimate moments. So we want to make sure there's a fabulous team member there who's going to teach you so many fun things about cocktails.
[00:03:47] Speaker B: Jess, anything to add to that?
[00:03:49] Speaker A: No, I think Willow hit it right on the head. That has been our mission since day one. We actually launched as an in person event bartending service back in 2019. You know, we showed up to people's weddings, large scale private events, fundraisers, and through Covid, we actually had to pivot, of course, like everybody else did during the pandemic, we switched to offering virtual cocktail classes. You know, we saw yoga instructors who were leading large groups switching to the online format and artists who were, you know, used to selling in public markets, switching over to teaching people art online. And we were like, well, why can't we do the same thing? So we started offering virtual cocktail classes and really found our nation. That spot where we were going into people's intimate spaces, then it was online, now it's more in person, but going into people's intimate spaces, making them laugh, connecting, helping them form a memory with the other participants. And that's when, in 2021, 2022, we pivoted back into the in person format. But this time with classes, it was really our segue to do that. So it's been quite the journey, and we're grateful for the ride.
[00:05:00] Speaker C: I'll add to, I guess, the zinger here is five years in. We did end up pitching the business on Shark Tank this January.
It took some turns, some very unexpected turns to are now five years in, we've been on Shark Tank, and you and I are chatting on your podcast. So it's. That's been a wild ride.
[00:05:18] Speaker B: I mean, it's a super, super cool story. We'll get to shark tank because it's like, when you told us that I was dying, like, I was brimming, and of course, you're like, and you're not allowed to tell anyone. I was like, this is the worst. Like, it's the worst to have that kind of secret, because then people be like, oh, like, what's going on with Willow? Like, I don't know why you ask.
I don't know anything about Willow. Who's Willow? Anyways, we'll get to that. Okay.
Beyond the business, though, you two were friends to start with, right?
[00:05:50] Speaker A: We are, yeah.
[00:05:52] Speaker B: So how did you meet?
[00:05:54] Speaker A: We met at Belmont after we both went to undergrad at Belmont University. And we had a number of people who were like, you have got to meet Willow. You've got to meet Jess. You guys need to meet each other. You'll be a matchmate in heaven. And we kept hearing this from multiple people. And one day, a friend of ours, who's still a really good friend of ours, she set up a dinner, and we were both invited, and everyone was right. Within moments, we were like, we're either going to run for office together someday, or we're going to start a business. We're going to do something.
We're movers and shakers, and we're going to make something happen. So that was back in 2018, and that's kind of part of our business story origin story, too, is that Willow gave me a call maybe six months into friendship. We were both kind of in deep in our classes at Belmont and looking for something new and exciting to do. And Willow gave me a call one day and was like, hey, how would you feel about going to bartending school? And, you know, neither of us knew a whole lot about drink making. We were actually both 20 at the time, and we didn't grow. And, you know, of course, in the states, the laws are, you gotta be 21 to drink. And neither of our parents drank a whole lot. And we, you know, we just wanted to kind of learn the basics around it. Neither of us had intentions of, like, this being a career thing for us. It was just something fun to do. And so I said yes. We went to bartending school on a kind of complete whimdan. And that's where this whole thing started.
[00:07:20] Speaker B: Willow, anything to add to that?
[00:07:22] Speaker C: I think it's just our businesses started in the spirit of saying yes, which I know resonates with you so deeply. I think, what was it, two years ago, we had our year of yes at cadence, and I was like, oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, that's good. In fact, sometimes I need to learn how to say no more because I am such a yes person, and Jess is, too, which is why she was my call for bartending school. Who's going to do this with me? Jess Will.
[00:07:42] Speaker B: Well, so what were each of you going to school for? What was the game plan for each of you career wise?
[00:07:48] Speaker C: So I was studying international business in Spanish, and I really had no idea. I hit that last semester of college, the semester we went to bartending school, and I was going, okay, where am I taking this degree? What do I actually want to do? And I was in an organizational management class that semester, and I was loving it. It was like organizational psychology, you know, how do you build a in really effective connective teams? And so I kind of got into that track of people development on the corporate side and wanted to do it internationally, of course, with the focus in that, which is how that conversation with a family friend led me to you, Aram. You know, one of our mutual friends was one of your coaches back then, and he said, hey, you need to talk to my coach. His name's Aram. He's doing exactly what you're describing. Why don't I connect you? And shortly after I graduated that December, I think we spoke a month after my graduation, and I was, I just called you to say, hey, how do I pursue something like this? I love what you do. I love that you're developing leaders. And I remember you caught me so off guard around. You said, well, would you want to do, like, an internship with us or something?
And I was like, I didn't know this call was going to be a job offer. Sure.
And that's where our story started. So it was kind of simultaneously looking for that thing that I didn't know what it was going to be. Stumbling into you, a ram. And then Jess and I, that previous year, stumbling into each other and coming up with the idea for Barbies. So I really jumped into both endeavors right at the same time. I launched Barbies in February 2019 and started with cadence in April of 2019.
[00:09:27] Speaker B: Yeah. And what about you, Jess? What were you doing in school? Like, what was your plan?
[00:09:31] Speaker A: I was studying economics and political science, and I kind of have a background, of an entrepreneurial background. My parents are both business owners and have been for a long time. They're private investigators, which is just a really funny, non traditional career path.
And, yeah, both very, very entrepreneurial people. My dad's actually canadian. I have a lot of family on Vancouver island. So it was serendipitous when Willow got linked up with you guys. Just, it was fun for me. Um, but, yeah, they, they're very entrepreneurial. I had kind of run a few businesses through my youth, and then, you know, right as I was going into college, I started a, another company and got a patent. It's just, it's part of my. Part of my being kind of. And so I had always had ambitions of that, and I just didn't really know what it was, what it was going to be and what kind of the career of my twenties was going to be. And I think that that's kind of why I've said yes to so much is like, in saying yes to bartending school, it's like you don't really know what's out there until you try it, and you don't really know what opportunities are going to come from saying yes to other things. And it's often not the thing you're saying yes to that ends up being the big moment. It's kind of a waterfall of that and Domino's falling of that. So, yeah, I didn't, I was still, I had another semester of school left when we started Barbies, and so I was kind of just applying to jobs. Didn't really know what was going to stick, and then Barbies ended up being the thing.
[00:11:02] Speaker B: All right, so you go to bartending school, you go to bartending class just for fun. You're both still in school. Where did the idea of actually starting a business? And I know when I say starting a business, we're not thinking like, oh, what it became, but even being like, oh, let's try and create some kind of service. Who came up with that and why? What was the idea there?
[00:11:20] Speaker C: It was actually the structure of bartending school itself. So Nashville is such an event heavy city, and there weren't a lot of mobile event bartenders at the time, but you could call the Nashville bartending school and they would send someone on their roster to your event. Now, that's great. And it is very much an economical option for people, but you have no idea who's showing up at your event. And we thought, okay, there's a need for reputable, personable bartending service in this city. You want to know who's showing up at your wedding, who's showing up at the biggest gatherings of your life. You kind of want to trust who's behind the bar, right? So that's the idea really came from just conversations of realizing, hey, there's kind of a gap here in Nashville. What, have we filled it? And I distinctly remember driving home from class one day. It was in. If you could see this location to around. It was like 220 year old girls showing up to the strip mall in, like, outside downtown Nashville in this, like, dark room, learning cocktails with a bunch of people. Like, it was such an obscure thing. Our parents were like, what are you doing? I thought, you're getting degrees. And we're driving home together, and we're throwing around the ideas of what this. This mobile bartending company could be. And, you know, it's fun. It's the idea. It's the brainstorming part that's fun. It's what we call it, you know, and we're throwing ideas back and forth. And I'm not kidding. We said it at the same time. Barbies comes out of both of our mouths at the same time, and we look at each other and we go, yeah, like a little bumblebee, like barbies. And it was there. It was there. And Jess. Jess likes to laugh at me because I call it divine conception, because that moment, it just hit us. And the idea for Barbies, it was solidified. And we were able to sit on the idea for a few more months until I officially graduated from Belmont. And it kept rattling in our brains until we finally registered the LLC that February.
[00:13:10] Speaker B: Yeah. Anything you want to add to that, Jess?
[00:13:13] Speaker A: No, it's just that we have a funny story we actually haven't shared in a long time. But there was a day that we showed up to bartending school, and they were explaining that once you graduate, you can go to be sent out to these events. And one of our classmates was this girl, and she was. She was wearing, like, little fox ears and a fox tail, and she was like, my name, you know, we were talking to her, and she was like, my name's Caitlin, but my friends call me truffles. And just really sweet, eccentric girl. And we were like, this would, you know, you can call the bartending school and get people to show up for your wedding, but again, you have no idea who's going to show up.
[00:13:53] Speaker C: It might be truffles for some of us.
[00:13:56] Speaker A: Like, I would love truffles to show up at my wedding. You know, my big day I would love the entertainment of that. I would. That would just. Just push the day over the edge for me. Like, I would love that. But it's like, you know, people are just. You want somebody that you can call and know, kind of have an idea in general that you might not be, you know, getting fox years. You might get more of, like, the apron vibe. So we were, we. That was kind of one of the catalysts, one of the funny little stories that we. That. That got us starting to think about this because, yeah, like Willis said, it was like there was either that option where, you know, you could hire a bartender for $20 an hour, or you hire, you know, like, a big food truck style bar that cost you $10,000 for the evening. And we kind of wanted to fill a gap there and provide something that was a little bit more affordable than those high end services, but a little bit more reputable than, you know, the bartending school.
[00:14:51] Speaker B: That's what I was saying. We got to do a story afterwards, like truffles. Where are you now? Whatever happened to you truffles?
[00:14:58] Speaker C: You got us to shark tank.
[00:15:03] Speaker B: Okay. There's a big difference, though, between your story and what a lot of people would do. So a lot of people would say, oh, something like, hey, you could have this $20 an hour thing or the $10,000 an hour thing. Someone should really fill that gap. A lot of people would say that. And then some people, a smaller population would be like, hey, maybe I should fill that gap. But then they don't do it. But a teeny little part of our world are people who will be like, hey, that's a cool opportunity. And actually, I could do that, and I am going to do that. So how did you bridge the gap? Like, I know it was natural for both of you based on your personalities and just, you're saying it's kind of like part of your family stories, being entrepreneurial. And, of course, Willow, I know, like, it's part of your family story has a lot of people putting themselves out there and just doing it. But there's a big difference between seeing other people doing it and really saying, like, oh, no, like, we're going to go do that thing now. So how did you get there? Like, what was the thought process?
[00:16:02] Speaker C: To be honest with you, part of the thought process was if we own a business together, we could hang out a lot more.
It was, we are. We get along so well.
We're so effective together. We make things happen. Right. You know, even in the first year of friendship, before starting the business, the amount of things we shoved into those twelve months, I mean, we just, we were so. It was almost like efficient. Fun is a weird way to put it, but we stuffed so much fun into a year, and we were just really good at working together, even in a fun capacity, that we thought, hey, building something together, I think we could be really effective at that. And so, besides the fun parts of, hey, let's spend more time together, the year we spent building memories became the foundational reason for starting a business that was all about celebration and connection, is we thought, hey, we love creating moments together and memories we've stuffed a lot into twelve months. How do we help other people do that? And originally, right, the idea was event, bartending, being there behind the bar at people's celebrations, we thought that would scratch the itch. And it did, in a way. Right, you kind of get the front row seat to people's biggest moments. But we weren't getting to connect with people individually the way that we wanted to, which is why we started the business, because we wanted to create the kind of connection that we have for others. So when we actually were able to pivot into cocktail classes that started scratching the itch in a totally different way, we were in smaller settings. We're going to have one on one conversations. We're getting to almost put on this improv show for groups at their bachelorettes and their corporate events and their birthday parties. And that's when it hit us. Oh, this. This is the business we meant to create. This is this the kind of connection that we were intending to facilitate. And so just being locked into the model that we are now, it makes so much sense. There was something, something drawing us into this business. And it makes so much sense now that it was to create the kind of connection we do with classes instead of bartending.
[00:18:00] Speaker B: Jess, any thoughts?
[00:18:02] Speaker A: Yeah, I think that is totally, like, that is the driver behind this business. And really, any business willow and I will start in the future together. But I also think, personally, for both of us, the personal autonomy that comes with running a business, and just not just autonomy and flexibility of time, because I think that's a huge misconception with entrepreneurs, is that they just have, like, total flexibility of their time and that, you know, they can take out time in the middle of their day to go do x, y and z or, you know, I think that that's a misconception about how entrepreneurs spend their day. But just being able to structure the lifestyle that you want and being able to, you know, there's not really a model or a formula for how it has to be. There's a million different ways that you can run this thing and structure your team and communicate with your team and train your team. And all of these things, I think, was really personally appealing to both Willow and I.
And, yeah, I think. I think it's.
A lot of people showed us what that was like before we did it ourselves. For me, it was my parents and Willow and I have both had amazing entrepreneurs in our lives to show us that, that path before.
But what's so cool about it is that there's a lot of personality types that can make this work because the beauty of it is that there's no one formula for it.
[00:19:18] Speaker B: So we live in, like, an amazing world that's, like, full of opportunity and beauty and cool things, but also we live in a world that's, like, especially right now, pretty crazy. And I think it's really easy to feel powerless in the world. It's really easy to feel afraid, to be hesitant, to take a risk. What advice would you have for young people coming up who are in, like, either they're in school but they're not sure what they want to do, or maybe they're not in school and they're, like, kind of in a job they're not super happy with. And they're. They're just kind of looking ahead and being like, I feel, like, powerless in this world. I don't know how I could go out and create my own career or create my own business. Any advice about how people could start tackling on tackling some of those bigger life questions of, like, how do I move forward with my career, with my passion, when it feels like everything is just too crazy?
[00:20:05] Speaker A: Yeah, I think that's a great question. I think, like I said a moment ago, it's like, there's not really one mold for it. And so, like, Willow and I, we were both part time at Barbie's really, until Willow. It was about a year ago for willow that she went full time, full board towards Barbies. And for me, it was just a year and change ago.
You can start small. You don't have to start in a world that's uncertain. Sometimes it's not always the wisest thing to just leave everything or leave something stable behind if you're not ready for that yet. And for some people, that's how they operate best, is that their business? They need to give it their full commitment and they believe in it and they can full charge it. And that works for them, but that doesn't always work for everybody. And it's. I don't think that people. My advice to somebody who had an idea, who wanted to start something, but maybe had some trepidation there would be to, you can kind of pursue both at the same time. And I think that that's okay. You don't have to be full time for it to be a real business. I think we got that a lot in our early, early career and early with barbies. People would be like, how's your little business? And it's like, it's, you know, it's. It feels so. It can feel so demeaning, but it's like you know your own business, and you know that that's not true. And I think that my advice would be to just, if you've got trepidation around it and if you've got something stable, it's okay to start part time. It's okay to commit 10 hours a week to it and get started. That way, it's still a real business.
[00:21:35] Speaker B: Yeah, that's. That's awesome advice. And that idea, like, um, I was just talking to my friend, uh, Garrett Rothman, who's a real estate broker, and we're these guys. He's had, like, a really varied career before he got got there. And we were talking about the idea of, if you don't know what to do, do something like, start. Just get out there, start grinding, start making something happen and build your momentum and figure it out as you go along, rather than just staying stuck and kind of coasting in a space where you're unhappy.
Any thoughts, Willow?
[00:22:08] Speaker C: I think my advice would be find partners. And that doesn't even necessarily mean a business partner. It could mean a business partner, but it really just means people that are going to partner with you. For us, being partners in this business has been everything. In fact, I'm so intrigued by how you built your business around just you. Like, it's got to be such a different dynamic being a solo entrepreneur that now has built a whole team that you can rely on. But, you know, having Jess, from the very beginning, I know it was a different dynamic than just going out. You know, I, like you always talk about you and your notepad, and you started making calls. It's like, I had Jess and a notepad. So it helped to have that. That person there, especially when you hit crazy highs, crazy, scary highs, like shark tank and not walking out into a. A platform like that alone. So, in our case, we have a partner, but we also have external partners, too. We've got mentors. We've had accountability groups separately and together of people and entrepreneurs who pour into us and who we've been able to ask for advice and for mentorship. And so whatever you do, whether you are going into the solo entrepreneur route or the business partnership, having partners of sorts around you, who are there a community of sorts to be able to bounce ideas off of or just say, hey, is this worth it? Hey, remind me what I'm doing this for, because you need those people to kind of push you on, as well.
[00:23:34] Speaker B: Yeah. Do you mind if I add a bit of the cadence story in there?
[00:23:37] Speaker C: Please do.
[00:23:39] Speaker B: So, going back to what you said, being like, it was just like, me, my notepad and a cell phone and just my parents dire warnings bringing in my ears, like, don't start your own business. Do it.
But I wasn't. So while I was a solo entrepreneur, I wasn't, because I had clients who became. Who almost acted like partners.
And what was something that was super interesting for cadence, and I got to always give him a huge shout out. Is this guy named Rob Hansen who was Paul Zany's boss.
[00:24:10] Speaker C: Oh, yeah.
[00:24:12] Speaker B: When I worked at the company I was at before, I remember having dinner with him in Atlanta, and he hard sold me on trying to start my own business. He was like, listen, man, what you do is so much different than the company you're at. He's like, the company you're at might have books. They might have, like, a website. They might have all this stuff. He's like, they're just, like, a public speaking company. They're not, like, real, like, leadership coaches. They're not, like, helping people build culture, and it's cool that you can learn how to, like, structure a speech. He's like, but that's like, you can go to anyone for that. What you do is unique. And I was like, oh, you know, thank you. I'm literally at, like, a business dinner that I'm there for this other company for. So I'm like, oh, thank you. I don't know what to do. But he was really insistent about it, and he was like, no, no. You should start your own thing. And I was like, well, you know, I'll think about it. And then the day that I started cadence, I'd had a couple people say stuff like that to me over the years, and I think you kind of take it in stride. But I'd always been one of those chronic, like, I'm going to start my own business someday. I'm going to. And just kind of what you're saying it's like, I want to be able to build the life I want and not be tethered to someone else's business. But also, I didn't want to work for assholes. My boss was an asshole, like, a straight up, like, just rich kid asshole and grew up rich. Like, didn't know how to interact with people. And I just remember thinking, like, I got to stop.
The way that I would deal with him was I'd always use this fantasy world pressure release as, like, I'm going to start my own thing someday. And it was a way that I could kind of bear dealing with this guy was like, well, one day I'll start my own thing. But then I keep working for this guy. And the day that I started cadence, I just called people, and I called and called and called people, and enough people came to my side. And so will I say, well, you know, will you say I started the business on my own? I did. But really, the partnership was from people who were like, I'm willing to take a chance on you. I'm willing to believe in you. I'm willing to give you some advice. And the first, like, two or three years of cadence, it was literally, like, people who were, like, giving me contracts but also giving me advice, like, okay, Ram, like, so this is how you incorporate your business, Aram. This is how you scale. And these are the people that I'm also, like, selling services to. And something I encourage people to think about is, like, if you're starting, you want to start something and you really want to do it, and maybe you're in a bad work situation or you're uncertainty. Jess, I loved your perspective of, like, just start small, start something. Like, start something. But I also tag in, like, Willow's perspective. It's like, you're not really alone. If you're willing to ask people for help and advice and you're willing to seek out mentors, there's no way cadence starts in a vacuum. Like, I'm not some business genius that started this thing. I'm, like, a really fortunate, ultra lucky guy that had good relationships with people, and those people were ultra willing to help me and correct me and tell me when my ideas were stupid and, like, put me in the right direction, introduce me to people, and without them, I would have just been some guy working for an asshole and who's, like, someday dreaming of starting his own thing. So there's lots of different ways of doing it, but you gotta start somewhere, and you gotta ask for help.
[00:27:29] Speaker A: Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I couldn't agree more. And the mentorship piece, too, is really cool. You mentioned, like, a lot of some of the part early on, partners came along and kind of mentored and helped you through that. That's been a big part of lil nice journey, too, is we've had some mentors that I can't say we'd be where we are now without. And it's like you really, that requires work. You know, you've got to go out and find those mentors, and you've got to, you know, for us, it was at Belmont University, they had a entrepreneur in residence program, and it's something we've talked a lot about, you know, on shark Tank and in some interviews and stuff since. But it really, I mean, it's nothing. We're not being facetious when we say, like, it was game changing for us to find a. Find a mentor who has kept us accountable over the years, who has, you know, made commitments to chat with us regularly. And, you know, and it's. It's a vulnerable process because it's like, you know, we have to report to them, good or bad.
You know, it requires you to. Even before the shark tank process, where we really had to go through a business with a fine tooth comb, it's like we really had been doing that all along. Maybe not as deeply, but we had to report the good and the bad. And that was a way for, I think solopreneurs could really, would really, really benefit from. If you're feeling hopeless, if you're feeling very alone, like, seek out mentorship and seek out, you know, there's all kinds of programs with local, you know, a lot of incubators have, like, really inexpensive to free community resources or some certain chamber of commerce, have really affordable, like, resources to other entrepreneurs who are willing to mentor. And I think that that's been pivotal for us and would be really pivotal for solopreneurs.
[00:29:12] Speaker B: Have either of you ever done, like, team or solo sports at a competitive level before? In high school, yeah, but in high school, yeah. How about you, Willow?
[00:29:23] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, I joined the soccer team in high school to hang out with my friends.
[00:29:26] Speaker B: Yeah, right. Okay, but you're hanging out with your friends, you're doing something right, and you got a coach, right. And the coach is there to guide you, but they're not actually playing the game. And if you're thinking about, like, anyone who is trying to do something, whether it's like you're trying to get in shape and you start working with a personal trainer or you're at some kind of competitive level. Very few people are just like, I'm just gonna, like, go lift these weights or whatever. Like, you get some guidance from someone, and when it comes to entrepreneurs, I don't want to tell anyone this is how you have to do it. But the idea of doing it without a mentor or a coach or someone who helps shine the light for you a little bit and give you feedback and direct you down that path, it's like, it doesn't need to be as hard as people sometimes make it. If you just tap into people who are willing to help, for sure.
[00:30:21] Speaker A: I was just going to say, yeah, don't make it harder than it needs to be. There's all kinds of people out there who have done it before you.
[00:30:27] Speaker C: I think that's it's the same philosophy of not white knuckling every part of your business. Right. I think sometimes there's this, like, I started this thing. I have to be autonomous. I have to be an expert in every single corner of this business. And if you want to grow a business, you got to be able to go, oh, my gosh, I'm so bad at that. I need to pay somebody else to do that.
And I think that's just part of bringing other people in. Whether it's people who are pouring into you or it's a team that you're pouring into and you're training up, you got to be willing to let parts of it go.
You're not good at all of it. We are not good at all of it, Jess and I.
[00:31:05] Speaker B: And, you know, like, sometimes it could feel like, you know, you, you can hear people say, it's like, oh, people are. People are so bad. The world's full of bad people. It's like, I don't know, flip it over. If you put stuff out in the world and you ask people for help, and even if there's nothing really in it for them, a lot of people are willing to help, especially entrepreneurs. People love to help entrepreneurs if they've gone that, down that path themselves.
[00:31:27] Speaker C: Yeah, that's true. We were really blessed to be in Nashville, too, which is such an entrepreneur hub. It's just such a beautiful city, and it's really interconnected, especially in the events industry. And so we just had, I mean, person after person say, I want to connect you to this person. Oh, my gosh. I'm going to get you into this event venue. Oh, my gosh. I have all these girls who are doing their bachelorettes. It was like, it was such a cool hand up situation where we just felt really, really connected to the city and still do. I mean, it's still a huge part of our story. And we love the entrepreneur community of.
[00:31:57] Speaker B: Nashville, the business, like you do the bartending class, you see, like, hey, there's kind of a gap in the industry here. We could fit in this industry. You go out and incorporate. But then what? How did you grow the business?
[00:32:09] Speaker A: Well, it took a lot of twists and turns, and it's like I said earlier, it's like we had to. We became masters at pivoting because it was like we started as event bartending that was exclusively word of mouth.
Willow and I tried our hand at, say, sales and, you know, marketing ourselves and, you know, becoming the canva graphic designers that every small business owner becomes. And, you know, you start to just learn everything. And that was entirely word of mouth. And then we switch over to virtual and started really pushing on social media and pushing, you know, directly to companies who we knew people at and, you know, who we had worked with before.
[00:32:50] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:32:50] Speaker A: And then switching over to the. To the in person cocktail classes, we decided that, you know, that there was a big shift. Then when we saw that, okay, people really, really want this during COVID people really, really need a way to connect. People are itching for something that they can learn. Everybody was into learning how to make sourdough, learning how to make. A lot of people became at home mixologists and cocktail and mocktail makers.
And so we saw that we had something that was highly sought after.
When people started asking for these classes in person, we realized how scalable we were. You know, the virtual classes gave us a way to kind of give us, like, an almost national and international footprint because we were teaching classes to people all over, you know, the city of Nashville, because that's where we were best known. And then all over the country, you know, groups that had teams in New York and Austin. And then we were teaching classes to people in Tel Aviv and Tokyo, and it became sort of this wide reaching and business that we never really intended on having. And so as. As people started gathering in person again, we realized, okay, let's use this. Let's use this almost scalability. Let's use the fact that people, a lot of people know about us nationally, specifically in cities like New York City and Scottsdale, Phoenix, Scottsdale area, and, of course, Nashville. But those two cities happen to be hubs for where we were teaching these virtual classes. And we were like, let's use it. Let's use this opportunity where we're fresh on people's minds from teaching them virtual classes to pivot into the in person space. And so that's kind of where our, the scalability switched in our minds. And we actually had a lot. We laughed because we had a lot of people along the way when we were doing the in person, when we just started doing in person classes who were like, this would be great on shark Tank. This would be, you know, you guys are the perfect fit for shark Tank. And we always kind of brushed it off because we were, you know, we. I've watched shark Tank since I was a little kid. Willow and I spent time watching Shark Tank just to keep sharp on entrepreneurial stuff. And we were always like, well, you know, that's mostly a product show. You see a lot of products on the show, very few services. And so. But people continued to say, you guys would do great on Shark Tank.
And it wasn't until we became scalable and we're in, like, I think, five cities at that point that we were like, okay, maybe we do have something here. We're in multiple cities. We've got a formula for expansion.
How can we make this work on an even broader scale? And that's how shark Tank got on our radar.
[00:35:34] Speaker B: Heck, yeah.
Let's talk about the business model, because I want to build towards shark Tank, because I know that was a real pivotal moment, but a lot happened before that, as you're saying. So again, before shark tank, how did you build your business model? Like, how does your business work now, since you're scaling, you're in multiple cities? Like, so how does it work?
[00:35:53] Speaker C: So we have teams in each city. We hire individuals who are part time contractors, and we give them a bartending kit. So they have a number of shakers, squeezers, muddlers, cups, napkin straws, little bowls to put garnishes in. We give them a set kit to each individual person that they show up at every single class with. We also ship all of the non alcoholic ingredients to them ahead of time so they can quality control. So our operations team takes care of that and is in communication with our actual client facing team members. Our instructors, the client themselves are the ones who provide the alcohol and the liquor. And then that instructor shows up with the kit, the non alcoholic goods, and they show up and they teach that class for 60 to 90 minutes. They clean up and they're out of there.
[00:36:41] Speaker B: The team members, are they, like, responsible for building the client relationship or do they just come on? They just come in and do the event and that's it. So do you give them the events, or do they help sell the events and build a relationship?
[00:36:54] Speaker A: We give them the events. So we run everything centrally. So we're not like a franchise model where each city has its own owner or even captain or leader. We run everything internally through our operations team. So we run the ads, we deal with the client relations.
We get all of the contact information and the clients cocktail choices and any other specific details. Like, it's not just a birthday party. It's my grandma's 70th birthday party, or it's my wife and I's 45th anniversary. And we get the specific details so that we can make sure each. Each class has kind of a custom touch to it. And then we kind of field those to the rest of our team. So we'll say, anybody in Scottsdale want this class? And it's worked really well for us, that system.
[00:37:56] Speaker B: So both you and Willow are still, like, the sales point a bit?
[00:38:01] Speaker C: Yes. But honestly, our number one driver of sales is. It's Google Ads. So we run Google Ads currently, but we do. Yeah, we do sales outreach, for sure. But a lot of our client interaction is actually our director of Ops. So she is that one who's fielding inquiries. She's like a superstar. We're obsessed with her. We love her so much.
She's like, you would love her room. It's like somebody who'd be like, yes, I'm hiring this person. She's got all of her shit together.
And so she has been such a huge driver of sales as well, and helping us just comb through details. You know, Jess and I have had to, you know, for five years bounce back and forth between that visionary mindset and detail. Detail headspace. And she has helped fill the gaps of our.
The needs that we have in our. In the detailed part of our brains, because we're big visionary people. So it's a mix of all of us all. We have some sales touch points, including, we just rolled out a commission structure for our team members. So we're trying that right now. So they're not in charge of sales by any means, but they definitely get a little kickback if they drum up some business for us.
[00:39:05] Speaker B: Yeah, totally. So this is what I'm interested in, is how did you build the model? And were there any kind of different iterations that didn't work before that you had to evolve, so when it was just the two of you, like, just you two. And, like, you're the. You're everything. Your point of contact, your ops, you're all these things to. Okay, we're building something. And, Jess, I like you're saying it's like we kind of realized we were scalable, like we could actually do this thing. Like, how did the model evolve and how did you build it? Was it trying a bunch of stuff? Was it intuition, kind of gut feeling? Or were you, like, saying, oh, no, we've got this model from, like, a mentor from. We read it somewhere, and this is what we're going to do. So how did you come up with the model and how did it develop?
[00:39:42] Speaker A: I think our virtual classes really were the. They were kind of the incubator for this model because we were teaching these virtual classes in the almost exact same format that we teach our in person classes. They're just, you know, there's some slight differences. So for our virtual classes, we still teach two cocktails, usually over 45 minutes instead of an hour. But they're still the same prompts. They're still all of the same conversation starters. It's the same cocktails on the menu where we have, you know, all the same fun facts. And our instructors are really comfortable with those recipes. But Willow and I were the only ones teaching virtual classes for a long time in that, especially 2020, 2021, we were pretty much the only ones teaching those classes. And so we were able to refine them as we went. And it didn't, it wasn't a whole, wasn't a ton of tweaks. I mean, I think at first we were like, should we do one cocktail or three? And we landed on two. And. But it's just, we were able to kind of tweak it in this a little bit lower stakes of an environment. People are spending less on a. On an virtual experience than they are an in person experience.
So it was a bit lower stakes. We were able to just tweak as we went. We actually, when we first started the virtual classes, we were doing them for tip only. And, you know, that was way back when everybody thought Covid was going to be 14 days. Remember that? When they were like, it'll be the 14 days of isolation and everything will be fine.
But it was back then. We were like, okay, well, let's just start offering these for tip only. And so again, it was really low stakes on our end because we were charging not a whole lot of money. People weren't putting a huge investment in it. But it gave us the opportunity to really, really refine and tweak our model, you know, refine our talking points so that when we did switch to those in person classes, we already had all the content, you know, we had out. We had bullet points out as conversation starters, you know, how do you intro the class? How do you. What kind of questions really get people laughing and, you know, building memories together? And then what cocktails work really well for. For people to build them out themselves? And so when we switched over that, that was kind of just. We already had the. The model down from those virtual classes. So it was just, I think, for us, it was a lesson. And, you know, get a lot of practice before you go to market with something that's. That people are, you know, you're inviting. Like Willow said earlier on, you're inviting. People are inviting us into their most special days, into really intimate circles. And so you want it to be the best experience you can possibly give. And so, for us, it was a lot of workshopping till we even got to that point.
[00:42:25] Speaker B: A comparison I'd make is if you see a comedy special, I don't know, a Netflix special or whatever the jokes that those comedians are telling, they've been working on for years and years or months and months and months, and they work on it by doing it live in front of people, and they're figuring out in a live setting, oh, this is how I should tell that joke. That's what I should cut out. This is how I should tell that story. But how insane is that? Is like, you're out trying to figure out how to entertain people by doing it live in front of people who could totally eviscerate you in any moment. Like, comedians are, like, the most insanely courageous people because they're, like, out there doing something while figuring out how to do it. And they're like. They're. It's like riding a bike and building the bike at the same time. And I don't say riding a driving car while building the engine, because that seems safer. Like, riding a bike while building a bike seems insane. Like, you know, and that's, like, what comedians do. So you. You figured out your model by kind of doing a version of that. Like, you're doing the classes, you're like, okay, not three cocktails, two cocktails. Oh, this is a better conversation starter. But you're figuring that out, literally, by doing it in the moment.
[00:43:36] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, even little things where it's like, I think we did four cocktails one time, and we said, oh, people are getting a little too buzzed. We cannot do fork cocktails.
Liability is going to kick in. We're not doing fork cocktails. But, yeah, totally around. I mean, we even say we're in the event or the entertainment industry a lot of times, because we're hiring entertainers, we feel like entertainers in a lot of ways. So it's a fun model for our team members because they kind of get a side gig where they get to be like an improv actor. I mean, I love it when our team members go, I feel like I put on a show and we're like, good. It should feel that way. Like, it should feel fun. You know, you're trying things, you know, you're making jokes and seeing if they land with certain people. Like when you watch a stand up comic and they're just adapting in the moment. So we love kind of being on the, we're rubbing shoulders with the entertainment industry.
[00:44:26] Speaker B: I believe the term for it is edutainment.
[00:44:29] Speaker C: Edutainment.
[00:44:30] Speaker B: Yes, that's. That's the phrase. We have someone who's helping us with some of our online content, and it was like, you got to view it as edutainment. It's not just about educating people. It's got to be fun and interesting, and they're laughing and enjoying themselves.
[00:44:45] Speaker A: I love that.
[00:44:46] Speaker B: All right, so you figure in it out as you're going along. What was your first full time hire and how the hell did that feel? Like? That must have felt so wild for both of you.
[00:44:56] Speaker C: So no one is full time on our team other than Jess and myself. But our first part time hire was back when we were event bartending.
And I do remember cutting the first check and being like, wow.
And I mean, like writing out a check. Like we were antiquated. And this was literally just five years ago. We just were not tech savvy. And then I remember when we brought on our director of Ops and this was like an internal operations role. This wasn't just a team member. This wasn't just a class instructor. That's when I think it hit Jess and I like, wow, we have someone who we're going to be talking with every single day, who's going to actually be helping us build this thing, right? The ones who go out and are client facing. I mean, we rely on them to carry our brand and who we are in so many ways, but they're not a part of building the actual business and the structures and the processes. And when we brought on our director of OPS, she's still part time.
It changed, I think, our mindset, because it kicked us into gear to go, okay, this isn't just me and Jess anymore. Other people, they're relying on consistent, consistent salary from this. Right? People are expecting regular pay because they are regularly pouring into our company. And so we need to keep building this company so we can keep regularly paying them. And I think having the structure of another operational team member has been so cool for the three of us to just add structure and processes into the company. She's very detail oriented and has taught Jess and I a lot, and we all work together very closely. So I think it's an honor to make those first few hires and feel like, wow, somebody actually wants to be a part of this with me. And they believe in me enough to want to make money off of me. That's pretty cool.
[00:46:43] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
You've talked about the visionary side a bit. Do you mind if I talk about the pragmatist visionary scale?
[00:46:50] Speaker C: Yes, please do.
[00:46:52] Speaker B: Jess. Like, I know this is our first time meeting, but I'm a crazy person, so all I do is think about human beings all the time. I'm constantly analyzing people, and I was like that from when I was a really young kid. I'm just constantly analyzing and figuring out patterns and trying to. I'll very often make up something like the pragmatist visionary scale just so I can explain something to myself, and then I use it to explain to other people. So when I started working in the not actually even in the business world, this is something I came up with when I was just playing in bands a lot, is I would meet these people who were like insane musicians, crazy songwriters, but also had like, demons, like, were really troubled people, like, really struggled. And they would always be surrounded by really capable bass players and a really capable drummer and a really capable this and that. And those people would filter out very often, but they were always very, very good. But they wouldnt last very, very long until maybe they find some core players who would stick with them. So this is when I started coming up with this thing. And so if you think of, like, a straight line, at one end it's visionary, at the other end, it's what I call a pragmatist. And then at the center point, it's someone who's 50%, um, uh, 50% visionary, 50%, uh, pragmatist. I think the best entrepreneurs are people who are just to the right of being, uh, a pragmatist. Or maybe one position further. So the further away you get from center, the less you're able to actually do the things that your business is built on. So, like, Steve Jobs, he couldn't have, like, built an Apple computer. He couldn't have, like, built an iPhone. Like, you know, he didn't have those level of engineering skills, but he could think of those things. So I have kind of like three positions. It's like center position, or there's center and then there's like position one, position two, position three. And the further, the further out you get on the visionary scale, the less you can actually do the thing. That's why you need the pragmatists to be able to do those things. But the more that you can, like, see around the corner or think of the next thing. And so if you think, like, Steve Jobs would be like a position three visionary, that means he needs to have ultra strong pragmatists to be able to like, hold down the fort, like create things, like create the process, do those things. I think the best visionaries, like the best CEO's or business builders are people who are like position one or position two visionaries, because they can still do the things, but they're better off when they have really solid pragmatists that are with them who can do the process, the details and all that. It's not that either one of you couldn't have figured it out, but that's not the best use of your time. The best use of your time is being in the visionary space. And the other way I explain it is the further along the visionary scale you are, the more detached from reality you are, and more detached from the human experience of trying to make those things happen. So, like, I find CEO's who are like kind of position two or three are detached from how hard it is to do some of the pragmatist stuff, which means they can be really brutal on the pragmatists, which means they have a lot of churn of pragmatists. They're always losing people and they're so that's like the insane songwriter who doesn't can't keep a bass player. Cause they're too mean to their bass player. So that's why I think, like a position one visionary is the best, where you can still do this stuff if you needed to, but your time is better spent there. I like to consider myself a position one visionary, where I think I'm still real nice to my team and I kind of have a sense of what's going on, but also my time is better spent thinking about the ideas. And that's kind of how I view both of you, is position one visionaries, where you're big thinkers, but you're still super attached to what it means to do the pragmatic stuff, for sure.
[00:50:28] Speaker A: I think that's great. And what Willow said earlier about not white knuckling those business, you know, those, those certain aspects of the work that aren't necessarily. That you're not necessarily cut out for. I think that that was a huge shift for Willow and I is to bring somebody on who was a pragmatist and bring somebody on who's more detail oriented, because that's when we really soared, I think. Like, it was. It's when, when we hit our stride strategically. Like, it's when we started to be like, okay, now we're not, like, in the excel sheet, inputting all the dates and times and then shifting the dates and times when the client has a need. And all of those things are essential to our business operations, but they're the things that Willow and I, you know, stuff slipped through the cracks. And so it was like we were finally able, once we were able to pass that off, we were finally able to be like, okay, what are the best meeting structures for our team? How can we most effectively, like, communicate with our team and bring out the best in them? How can we bring out the best in each other? How can we prepare for something like shark tank? How can we, you know, like, how can we pinpoint people in our lives or people who are aspirational figures in our lives and. And try to, like, tap into their world and, you know, show up and. And bartend for, you know, a couple years ago, like, I had. I have this, like, fascination with Jesse Itzler, who I'm sure you know who he is. He's like an ultra runner and just a brilliant entrepreneur. And his wife, Sarah Blakely, who, we share a last name, but we're not related. I wish we were, but I love that legacy. She's. She's incredible, but she's the founder of Spanx and just. Yeah, brilliant, brilliant lady. But I. It was just like when we started to be able to push some of that stuff off, we got to get really creative with who are people that inspire us, whose orbit can we get into, not just from a sales perspective, but let's learn from them. Let's be able to plug into that when we're not in the excel sheets for 6 hours of our day. I think that's when we really grew as entrepreneurs and then our business was able to grow as a result.
[00:52:42] Speaker B: I love what you're saying there. Like, this is like, I think it's super important for people to hear, like, you can do that stuff. Like, it's not fun. It's like, you know, whatever but you can do it. But when you bring in someone who excels at that and they're like, oh, yeah. And they're comfortable with it, they like doing it.
For example, we have someone on our team right now who's, like, really good at excel and actually likes doing it, finds it kind of soothing. And for me, it's like, I find it, like, maddening, and I hate doing it. If I had to do it, I could. But, like, when you get that right combination, not only are you giving someone who's excited to do it, likes doing it a job, and they're going to do a good job, it frees you up to do the thing you're supposed to do for you, it's like, how do we get into that person's orbit? How do we make this connection? How do we think of that thing?
One of the things I've been talking about a lot is so in the industry that I'm in, having a book is really important. It's a legitimizer to clients. It gives you more speaking opportunities. But I've never been able to get to it because I've been, like, you know, in the trenches with the business, and I've been doing tons of coaching and, like, tons of sales and, like, building out the structure of the business. And we're finally in a place where it's like, we've got this incredible leader for the coaches. We've got this incredible leader for the courses. They're also managing the sales. Jerry is handling all the ops. She's got Patrick on the team. Like, they got Michaela. Tammy's got the marketing. Like, we're finally in a place where it's like, oh, I actually can do that thing now. And that's what I want to do, and that's what I should have been doing, but I was too stuck in the, like, not the Excel spreadsheet, but all the other trenches of the business. And we're finally in that position, and I'm like, well, what could happen now with the business? Now that I can put that focus on it?
[00:54:23] Speaker C: Yeah. I personally feel like I was like, I had a leg up in starting this business simply by being a part of cadence from the very beginning. Because, I mean, I've been hearing you talk about this Saram. I mean, yeah, I'm gonna. I'm just gonna gas you up because, like, I've been hearing you talk about pragmatist versus visionary, all of these ways. How do we present ourselves with executive presence? Things that my brain has kind of been you know, I've got my cadence brain and my Barbies brain. The last five years, you know, I've been in between these two companies, watching both of them grow and having a hand in both of their growth and having that mindset at an early age. I remember it was in my first or second years you started talking about that. And that's when it clicked where I was. Like, I've, I know, I know where my skills are. I've got to get out of the weeds so much. I'm good. I can be really good in the weeds. But I, if I'm going to build this thing with Jess, both of us share similar strengths. We have got to find, find the sweet spot between, you know, on this spectrum that you started talking about. And so, so many of the lessons you started saying and the way you were to, you were processing the world and then teaching us as a team and then teaching our clients so many of the things I was able to apply into barbies and how we lead together. And it started conversations for me and Jess, like, hey, Aram said this thing and I think this is, this probably describes us as entrepreneurs. And so I thank you for that because I really feel I had a leg up, kind of, I grew up between both of these companies and have applied my skills from both to each other.
[00:55:51] Speaker B: Oh, thanks, Phil. That makes me feel so good. And if I played, and if we played any part in that, in your success, just, it's the best feeling.
All right. So you grow in the business now. You're kind of, you've got some ops people. You're like, hey, this is where should spend our time. You're starting to, like, scale up the organization. You're in a few different regions, and then shark tank comes calling. So tell us how that happened and just the story behind it.
[00:56:18] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. So that started happening last year. Like, just said it was not on our radar at all and kind of on the down low.
They have a team that reaches out, a casting team.
We did not know that. But it's kind of, people are, people know that it happens. They just don't want it super publicized. But we kind of got an email that we thought was maybe it's like one of those emails where you're like, this is a spam, right? This is like, what is this? But it didn't hit spam account. We were like, let's check this guy on LinkedIn. And it was a casting director from, from Shark Tank. And so we were like, we might as well have a call. And that started the whole process where it was like, wow, should we say yes to this? I mean, we've said yes to literally everything.
We should at least just feel it out, see what happens. And did not know that a yes to bartending school and a yes to this. The spam email in our account would turn into us walking into the tank with the sharks. But it did. And it was a very quick process, a quick turnaround. And I remember having that conversation with you last year around when it was becoming official, and I had to say, hey, this secret thing is happening. I need you to know that we're pitching parties on shark Tank. And this was not on our radar. This was not on the calendar for 2024, even just a month or a month and a half ago. So I was. 2023 is when we filmed. But it was such an encouraging process because we were not only able to feel the encouragement of them wanting us to be a part of that, but it also was an opportunity for us to comb through our business like never before. And luckily, we had our finger on the pulse in some ways as we built our operations team. But this took it to another level. And so we got to walk into the. Into the tank last year, so confident in what we were presenting to the sharks. And. And then we aired in January of this year. So it's been. It's been over a year that we've been in this whole process.
[00:58:19] Speaker A: I mean, there's. It was.
[00:58:21] Speaker C: There's so.
[00:58:22] Speaker A: I mean, there's so much. There was so much that happened through that whole process.
Yeah, it was. It was the hardest willow and I have ever worked in our lives. That is a. I mean, it's. I think the show does a really, really good job at pretty accurately portraying, like, what goes down. So the sharks know nothing about you? Nothing.
What we heard kind of backstage was that, you know, their aides go out and, like, kind of tell them your name before you walk out just to make it better tv, so that, you know, they know they can call you out by name. You know, so it's. In case they miss your name when you walk in. It's like they're able to actually ask questions directed to you and whatnot. But other than that, other than maybe your name, they don't know anything about you, and so you walk in and they. You're not prepped with any questions. The only thing that we had prepared was our pitch. Other than that, we were. We went in blind. It was like we had to watch episode after episode. We did some research. You know, what our people do all kinds of statistical analyses on shark tank and figure out what questions are most asked and whatnot. And we had kind of panels of close mentors ask us questions and especially, like, for our accountants and our lawyers and stuff like that, people who were close to the Barbie circle to kind of help us prep and whatnot. But beyond that, like, there was no there. We were walking in blind. And I think the show does a really, really good job at accurately portraying what happens. The thing that is different is that we were probably in there 30, 35, 40 minutes. We honestly have no idea. You kind of black. You're in there, and, you know, they air, like, seven or eight minutes of it. So, yeah, it really. It's like Willow said, it was like. It really. It required us to go through our business with a fine tooth comb like never before. To be able to perform under that pressure, you've got to really, really work at getting your. Your stuff together.
[01:00:19] Speaker B: So to the level that you can share and whatever you're comfortable with. What was the deal that was struck?
[01:00:29] Speaker C: So our on screen deal was with guest shark Danny Levetsky. And so we went in asking for 10% for 75,000, landed on 20% at 75,000. The deal, honestly, it's still in the works. It hasn't even closed, but we're still connected to the team. And he was really, really wonderful. He and his team were really wonderful around airing with pr and everything. So it's one of those things where we're learning a lot of what it looks like to bring on an investor. To be honest, it wasn't on our radar to bring on an investor before Shark Tank.
[01:01:00] Speaker A: And we.
[01:01:01] Speaker C: I mean, even the event itself was so shocking. Then landing an onscreen deal was like, whoa. We had not even prepared for that to be.
It's been a huge learning curve and a really cool one. So still in the works and still, you know, getting to learn from him and figure out what it looks like to sell part of your company and also being involved in the daily process of still running Barbie. So it's.
[01:01:25] Speaker A: You.
[01:01:25] Speaker C: Do you gotta be, you know, off boarding some of those things? Because you can't be in the weeds when you're thinking so high level, like, you know, selling a portion of your company.
[01:01:34] Speaker A: Yeah, I think it's so funny because Willow and I went into the whole thing so open minded, because, to be honest, we were like. I mean, there's not. Like I mentioned earlier, there's not a whole lot of services on the show. And so we went in really open minded. We were like, I don't know how, like, I think we can, you know, I know we can perform well on the show. Like, I'm like, we prepared a lot and we just, you know, we love that kind of thing. So we, we went out there knowing, you know, we'd represent our brand well, but remaining very open minded about whether we were going to get a deal or not. It's not like we had a put anything financially on the line. We hadn't gotten out second mortgages in reliance of getting a deal or something like that, which just, we, we went into it thinking if we get a deal, that would be, I'd be shocked. It'd be amazing.
And it's just, yeah, we'll see what happens. And so us getting a deal, like, I think that helped take a little bit of the pressure off. Obviously, you're pitching your business, the baby that you've been working on since, you know, for the last five years or whatever on national television in front of Mister wonderful and Mark Cuban, you know, billionaires and multi hundred millionaires, right in front, you know, a couple feet away from you is high pressure. But I think for us, it was like if we, when we were able to reframe it as, like, this is really just fun. If we don't get a deal, we're going to be okay. And I, that really, really helped our attitudes and our spirits going into it. And, um, I think it was just a couple minutes into the tank, we got really great energy from Daniel. Our panel was Mark Cuban, Damon, Mister wonderful, Laurie and Daniel Levetsky. Like Willis said, the guest shark. And so we just a couple minutes into the tank, we knew Daniel was our shark. And when he made an offer, it was at first a little higher. Willow did an amazing job negotiating. Watch it. Check out the episode Willow. Willow went back and forth a couple times, so they were trying to get it.
[01:03:32] Speaker C: We didn't practice this part much because you don't know what's going to happen. So Jen and I up there spring and you can see, like, the shock in my eyes and I'm like, this is happening. I'm negotiating with a billionaire right now. Okay, where is this going to land?
[01:03:48] Speaker A: We knew, we knew, we knew he was our shark and we were willing to go a little higher on the equity side than we were comfortable with going into it just because we felt like it was right.
[01:03:59] Speaker B: Heck, yeah. So what's changed since the airing of the show? What's changing the business to be totally real with you?
[01:04:06] Speaker C: Not as much as we had thought. And that's just like, we could sit here and, you know, give a whole fluffy answer of things that sound really nice. But I think entrepreneurship is adapting to what comes and what doesn't come that you expected to come. And so you can have all these big mountaintop moments and expect all of these, like, high level outcomes and, oh, this will get us here, this will get us there. And sometimes it just doesn't. And so for us, luckily, though, we had that mindset, I think, pretty much dialed in before airing. We knew as a service, we are not something that people can just buy online in 10 seconds. Go, oh, I saw that on Shark Tank. I'll buy a scrub daddy for $15. Right. We are an event company. You've got to corral your people. You've got to choose a date.
There's some buying time involved with booking a class with us. And so I think we had a really, really good level of expectation of the outcome of shark tank. We knew it was going to be a longer trickle effect rather than that one night we pop off and everything totally changes. So have we seen a difference? Yes.
Our following has grown.
We are getting inquiries in more places than ever and trying to figure out what expansion actually looks like for us.
But it wasn't that huge pop off that I think a lot of people expect or want immediately after such a big mountaintop moment. And that's okay. I think Jess and I are coming to terms with, like, hey, that's okay. We did a really awesome thing. And the next big thing could be six months after shark Tank because somebody saw us and goes, hey, I saw you guys on shark Tank. I've got this opportunity for you. So it's just being patient and not white knuckling the expectations of what can come from each big mountaintop momentous.
[01:05:54] Speaker A: I think the biggest difference has been kind of interpersonally with our team and with Willow and I. It's one of those things where we're like, oh, if we could do that, we could do anything because it was high pressure, it was a lot of work, and it was. And it's like, and then for the outcome to be so positive in the tank, like, I mean, not only had it just stopped at the hard work and combing through our business the way it did, Willow and I's confidence soared just in that process. But then to go into the tank and for shark tank kind of the show in the institution, and then the sharks be so supportive and believe in us so much. And then, of course, landing a deal that was pivotal for our confidence as entrepreneurs because it's no longer like, are we just, are we fools here? Like, do we just, like, have a, did we kind of have a fun business that, you know, maybe hit a fluke stride or something? But no, it's like these. America believes in you and the sharks believe in you, and that's really, really empowering. And then for us later to break the news to our team before we aired, and then that was really, really empowering for our team. And just to see them, you know, be like, I was a part of building something really big. And I think their performance has soared and, like, their confidence has soared. And we've got 30 people or 35 people on our team. So it's like that, that kind of is a, you know, that's a big deal for 35 extra people running around to be, you know, feel like they're a part of something bigger. And they are. They really helped us get to this point. And so I think it was more of, like, the interpersonal boost that is just the biggest difference I've seen and the biggest impact that it's made on me.
[01:07:30] Speaker B: Heck, yeah.
So I want to hit on something, like, around, like, seizing a moment. Do you mind if I talk about three different kinds of meetings?
[01:07:40] Speaker A: Yes.
[01:07:41] Speaker B: So the way I always look at meetings and, like, how tucked in and how prepared you have to be and how you speak is there's normal meetings, just like what we call, like, a conversational meeting. Then there's high value meetings, and then there's high stakes meetings. And the way that I talk about it is like, a conversational meeting is when you're with people that you know. So, like, let's say the two of you having a business meeting, it's conversational. You've normed to each other's style. There's nothing super high stakes on the line. You're just chatting, you're creating things, you're working it out. It's what I call chopping it up. You're just chopping it up. And so, like, if you're in the work world, you're going to have people who are super verbose or people who are super direct or people who have all sorts of different styles in between. And if you're in a conversational setting with them and you know them well, you norm to each other's style. So you can be productive, you can get through things. Doesn't mean you always love everyone communicates, but you've norm to it. It's no big deal. But then there's high value meetings. High value meetings are meetings where you want to give great value, or you want to get great value from the other people, or you want to have, like, kind of an equal exchange of value. In a high value meeting, you're more tucked in. You're prepared with your facts, you understand the conversation, or you know what you want to get out of it. You're prepped, and it doesn't mean you're prepped to, like, ultra high degrees. It's just you're more tucked in and how you present yourself physically, verbally, your and your content, your ideas. High value meetings can be with people that you work with all the time. So both together, you two have probably been in high value meetings with your lawyers or with accountants or your mentors, even with each other, where you're talking about something in a more tucked in, kind of more specific, focused way.
But also, high value meetings can be with potential clients. It could be with cross functional partners. It could be with people you don't know that well. High stakes meetings are definitionally different in my mind, in the sense that, like, there's something to win or something to lose as a direct result of this meeting. And it's like, the highest level of preparation, the highest level of tucked in, your physical presence is online. Your verbal presence is online. So that shark tank, the way I look at it, is, and I'm sure you'd had high stakes meetings before, but that was, like, the ultimate high stakes because it's also on tv.
[01:09:53] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[01:09:54] Speaker C: Nothing higher than that.
[01:09:55] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, I always joke that it's like the Olympics of entrepreneurship. I mean, it's just like. Yeah, I always saw it as, like. It's funny because I was like, I was in high school pitching businesses, like, to, you know, for scholarship money or whatever, like, just with businesses I had started. And it's like, I always saw it at, like, the real show because I'd watched it in preparation for those. As, like, that is like, pinnacle entrepreneurship. And, you know, it's like, you grow up a little bit, and you're like, for us now, it's like, okay, there's. There's. There's other metrics to success, but, like, for a lot, you know, it's. That it is. It's like the Olympics of entrepreneurship. It feels like very, very high stakes like that.
[01:10:35] Speaker B: Well, and what I love what you said earlier, Jess, about, like, oh, for me, I think it's, like, kind of brought the team together and kind of like that, that we're, like, actually a part of this thing now. And, like, the way they interact, it makes sense to me because you prepped for a high stakes moment and, like, it's like a win or lose thing. We're going to go in there and either, like, get some kind of deal or have some kind of good experience, or you actually could have, like, you know, there's, like, those famous shark tank things where people look bad and look totally silly. You went into, like, an ultimate high stakes meeting, and, yeah, it's cool, you got a deal. But really what it did was it, like, even helped solidify your brand more, your company culture more, your mission more. And that's like, the idea of showing up ready to. Ready to really engage with a high stakes moment with the highest degree of prep and understanding while also recognizing we're going to have to pivot, move on the moment, like, whisper with each other about stuff, like, figure it out.
That's really being in it. And I think what the two of you did there and what you've done since is super inspirational about just saying yes, but not being blind about it. Say yes, but prep and be ready and rise to the moment.
[01:11:42] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. I mean, aram, I got to give another kid shout out because it was for the last three ish years since we launched open enrollment courses. Right. I have taught own the room, and own the room is based on all of your content. How do you present yourself? What does executive presence look like? And we found out we're going on shark tank, and it hits me that I'm like, oh, my gosh. Everything I've been teaching in these virtual sessions to people, I actually have to go and do that now on national television in front of the sharks. And I was like, praise God, I have this in my back pocket because I really have to own the room this time.
[01:12:24] Speaker B: I totally did.
[01:12:26] Speaker C: Answering the damn question. All those sessions I've been teaching for years, I'm like, I have all of those things in the back of my head. And as Jess and I prepped, I bring up all of those thoughts and all the, hey, we got to remember. Let's keep it succinct. Let's. And we. Let's cut out the fluff. You know, what does it look like to, you know, answer bridge content? All of these things that were so involved in our prep for this high stakes environment?
I felt so much more confident having the background that I did based on your content and Cadence's content and the coaches that I've worked with at Cadence. I mean, it was pivotal to walking out of there and feeling so confident in the way that we. And how. And how well we did it. And I don't think I would. And I don't think we would have done as well had I not had that kind of background and training. So thank you for helping me own that room.
[01:13:13] Speaker B: Thank you. Thank you again. We really, really appreciate that.
Let's talk, though, about barbies is so much more than just like a bartending class, though.
There's one thing having content. But I. But the way that you speak, the way you see your physical presence, the way you see your verbal presence, all of these things kind of create your brand, including your online stuff, which is great, like, your online engagement and which I've really noticed in the past while, like, specifically just you on LinkedIn, like, I've been really noticing how much. Not how much, because it's a good pace, but, like, how well you do it. So your brand, from, like, either of you speaking to what you put online to, I would imagine, like, any of your team members going out, it's really solid. It's really well put together. And all of it feels authentic. Nothing feels like you're faking the funk. So how did you get that together?
[01:14:15] Speaker A: Thank you for saying that. Because it's something that, and I think a lot of, like, content creators, although that's not like our, you know, that's not our bread and butter, but it's something that's come with it. It's like, I think that that's it always. It feels good to hear somebody say that because you always struggle with this authenticity piece where you're like, I genuinely have lived this, but I never want to come off as fluffy, especially on LinkedIn in places where there is a lot of fluff. But I think that it comes with years of memories and years of experience with your business. And that's what I always try to draw from. When we're writing a blog, Willow and I will discuss blog topics or whatever, and we'll sit down and, you know, sometimes, or if I'm writing an Instagram or a LinkedIn caption, I'll go back and pull out, like, our Barbie's diary, where we keep bullet point notes of, like, funny or crazy things that have happened. And I think it takes time, too. I don't think. I think that the most authentic accounts and the most authentic things you see are, like, are people who have had a little bit of experience and a little bit of that under their belts instead of just, like, you know, shooting from the hip and trying to, like, throw spaghetti on a wall and see what lands. It's like you, you know, you gotta. And I think my advice to maybe a starting entrepreneur or somebody who wants to get into the space of being kind of a subject matter expert on something is like, you know, live it a little bit and come from that place, rather than just, you know, like I said, shooting from the hip and trying to, you know, trying to just, yeah, write on things that you've lived and write on things that you've experienced. I think that comes off as a lot more authentic.
[01:15:54] Speaker C: I think that's been somewhere we've had to stretch ourselves because that wasn't initially where we felt super comfortable.
I mean, we. We started this business when we were 20. Like, we, not to say we didn't have skills, we totally were skillful people and we had dusty personalities, but, you know, we didn't have a background in sales, we didn't have a background in marketing. We didn't have a background in tech by any means. So it was kind of all of these things that we've been collecting, these kind of skill sets we've been collecting and marketing ourselves has been something we've had to grow into, especially on as the world is, you know, your brand is an online presence. It's how do you present yourself online?
And so Instagram has obviously been such a big driver for us. And just the demographics that we targeted specifically in the bachelorette world and, you know, birthday parties, any kind of celebrations, even corporate, a lot of corporate groups find us through Instagram. So maximizing those, those platforms can be so hard because you try so many things and most of them just don't work and they flop. And you spend all this time creating content.
But again, that's an area where, I would say, reach out to people who are doing it really well. I mean, it's like we've had amazing conversations with people who've been willing to say, hey, here's worked. Here's what worked for me. Try this. Or, hey, I'm seeing that this is a trend, rather than, like Jess said, just trying something and throwing it out there. Now, do we still sometimes just try things and throw it out there because we need to post and we just need content. Absolutely not everything is as strategic as it could be on Instagram. Sometimes you just got to put a picture up, put a reel up. But I do think that it helps to have, you know, some champions in our backcor, in our, you know, in our corner that say, hey, this seems to be working. I want to encourage you to try this. And so it's about finding the people, finding the other people who are doing what you want to do better than you.
[01:17:44] Speaker B: Heck, yeah, Will. And also, Jess, do you mind if we tell a little bit of the story of Willow? You coming into cadence and kind of their evolution?
[01:17:52] Speaker C: Yes, for sure.
You want me to tell Jess?
[01:17:56] Speaker B: Well, Jess, you quote that.
Okay, I'll just start with. Because you already kind of talked about how we connected.
So, like, for anyone. Anyone listening, like, when I started cadence, I had no. I had zero plan. It was, like, 0% plan. It was always just this, like, I'm gonna be my own boss someday. And it was always that thinking, because I disliked my boss. And it was, again, it was just a pressure release.
But at the same time, I'd kind of been unintentionally building my own business, because what I did was way different than the company that I worked in. It just. It just kind of developed that way due to. Due to my background. So, day one, boom. I start this business, and I'm like, I started my own business. And then, like, day one was amazing, but day three was like, I don't know anything about how to start a business.
[01:18:44] Speaker C: What am I doing?
[01:18:46] Speaker B: Terrified. Like, I have no idea how to do anything. And now I have clients. Like, I've got clients who are willing to follow me. It's, like, almost like a real Jerry Maguire move moment, except, like, more than one person followed me. But I've got this thing.
[01:18:59] Speaker A: Did you go full time right away? Did you just. You quit and went full time?
[01:19:04] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:19:05] Speaker A: Heck, yeah.
[01:19:08] Speaker B: It was, like, day one. This is my new business, and it. And I didn't have a name for it. All the stuff that I. That I just said, and I was just calling people, like, hey, what do I do here? How do I build a business? Like, who do I call? Like, how do I incorporate all this stuff? But, like, you know, by the grace of whatever and by good luck and hard work, a year later, I've got this company, and I've hired, I think, three people within the first year.
And then it was weird. It's either year two or year three. I think it was, like, beginning of year three. Willow, where you came in, does that sound right?
[01:19:42] Speaker A: Yep.
[01:19:43] Speaker B: We've barely got anyone, actually. You know, it might still have been, like, late year two. It might have been late year two, but I can't remember. Whatever it is, it's early days.
[01:19:53] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:19:54] Speaker C: It was only. It was only you, Jerry and Tammy.
[01:19:58] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And we'd had a couple coaches come in one of them was full time, and I just. I just couldn't get it to work because I didn't know how to. I didn't know what I needed. I didn't know how to, like, build a company. Willow came in. We had this great first call. Shout out to Paul. Zany dude. Lovey, you're a great, great guy, great person.
I meet this person online. Totally at Willow. Just you as you still are today. Totally genuine, like, really charismatic, super fun to talk to you. We start with the intern thing, and it quickly becomes, oh, we need to hire this person. And we. You essentially became our model for how we develop people in the company, and that's now the model that we follow. It's like we. We bring people in and we just let them kind of decide where they want to go in the company. And if they work hard and they've got talent, then we'll let them build their own role. And you scale from there.
Does that sound all accurate to you?
[01:20:52] Speaker C: Oh, for sure.
For sure.
[01:20:54] Speaker B: So there's this moment where Willow starts talking about, sorry, I feel like I'm telling the story to Jess. And Willow, you're just like. You're like the audience.
[01:21:05] Speaker C: It's like I'm hearing a biography about my life.
[01:21:08] Speaker A: I'm loving it.
[01:21:09] Speaker B: Well, Willow is telling us about this business started. And Jess, it's so funny how you said that, where it's like, you know, people are like, oh, that's that nice little business. And you have to be like, okay, this is important to me. But they're kind of minimizing it because I remember being like, oh, they've got this nice little bartending business on the side. Good for them.
And we kept trying to get Willow to be full time, and Willow could not commit because she's building barbies. And me being an entrepreneur, and I want people to be successful, I'm like, okay, that's cool. That's cool. And I keep thinking, one day Willow is going to be full time and we're going to build this business together. She's going to be in my executive team. Like, she's going to be a partner in the business one day. And I'm just like, willow's the future is, like, part of the future plan of this company. And then as we go further and you guys become more successful and you build your business out more, there was a moment, and the way I describe it, and I'm sure you've experienced this, you know, sometimes when someone kicks a ball into the air, like, think of, like, a soccer ball. And then you also see someone walking through the field. There's some point where all people recognize, oh, my God, that ball's gonna hit that person right in the head. And everyone knows what's gonna happen, even though the ball's not even near them yet and that ball is gonna hit that person on the head. At one point, I was like, barbies is totally gonna take off and Willow is gonna. Is gonna leave the company and I'm going to lose Willow. And I had that moment of sheer adulation where, you know, a ball's about to hit someone in the head right in front of you. You think it's going to be really funny, but then also total fear because you don't want the person to get hurt. And I was like, Will is going to go off and do this super cool thing. I'm not going to be able to retain her. That's amazing. Good for her. And, oh, my God, what are we going to do without Willow? We totally need Willow to be in the company. And it was both feelings at the same time. And as the two of you progressed, but before shark tank, I had to, like, make peace with myself that I'm gonna lose this amazing person. But as a boss, but also a person in the world, it's like you don't want to hold on to people and keep them from doing the thing they're supposed to do, that amazing thing. And if anything, someone being successful, as after being in your business, is, like, the biggest compliment you want people to go on. But I was going through, like, such a, like, I'm going to lose Willow.
[01:23:28] Speaker A: Oh, my God.
[01:23:30] Speaker B: And I totally come to peace with it. And then you said, hey, I got to tell you, we got this thing, shark tank. And I was like, okay, I feel way better now. Like, I feel so much better. I'd already come to peace with it. And I was, like, super proud of you guys. So excited. I wanted you to do that thing. The ball had bounced off my head and I could laugh about it afterwards. I'm like, hell, yeah. But when Shark Tank came through and everything since then, I've just been like, I'd have that ball hit my head ten different times. I'm so proud of you guys. I'm so happy for you guys. But, Willow, your journey with us, which I know is still going a little bit, but your journey with us has been so enriching for me because that idea that you can have someone who's fresh out of college join your company and they partially grow up through your company to go on and do their own thing and do it super well is, it's one of the coolest things that ever happened to me professionally.
[01:24:26] Speaker C: Thank you for sharing that.
A new perspective. We've talked about my story and our journey together, but I hadn't heard that piece. And I love that because I started feeling that energy, too, of like, oh, no, I've got these two amazing companies that are both growing.
Oh, yay, they're both growing. But oh, no, what am I going to do between these two companies that I love and that shaped me and set the foundation for my entire career? Because, I mean, I remember my first few years around when you, you pushed me out into client facing stuff early on. You just said, all right, I want you to take this call.
I had someone say early on, oh, hey, you're just like, you're just, like, little around. And it was the compliment of my life. I was like, I was like, like, I want to, you know, I want to use the skills that he's instilled in me and that I've watched him and, you know, mirror this impact that he has on people. And so it was like growing this career with you and building barbies. There was, there was, it was an emotional thing to have to decide, okay, what does my path look like right now? Because I know that if I stay any longer between putting this much time and energy into both places I love, I'm going to end up screwing this up with one or both of them. Right? I'm going to end up half assing one or both, and I'm going to hurt two people that I care about so, so deeply, which is both of you two. I mean, both of you two. I've were part of building my career. I'm looking at both of you. And so it was that pivotal moment of, oh, gosh, I think I need to pour on my heart and soul into this. And shark tank kind of being that big push to do it. It was, it was kind of that divine kick that was like, hey, there's, there's a, here's a big sign. Here's the step you need to take right now. As emotional as it was to say, Aram, I have to go. I have to go beyond shark bank.
[01:26:20] Speaker B: What, what a way to go.
But based on that, what, what advice you have for someone who I guess really it is, it's like when to know, to take the leap and bet on yourself. So let's say you're working somewhere and it's great. You're happy with the culture. You're doing well financially, like you're feeling good, but you've just got to bet on yourself. Any advice for people who are facing that kind of challenge?
[01:26:50] Speaker C: I think it's be as kind and honest in your conversations around it as possible.
I knew as sensitive as the topic was around shark tank with you, Aram, I didn't want to have this fluffy, vague, seemingly avoidant conversation where it didn't, you didn't know why I was leaving. I wanted to be as clear and kind as possible to you. So you knew why I was taking the steps and I think that was necessary in all my conversations around, you know, other things I had to step away from and relationships that I had to say, hey, I am under the most stress and pressure of my life. I cannot pour into this right now. I don't have the time for this right now because I have to pour everything in my heart and soul into this. And the encouragement and love that I was shown because I think I was able to be vulnerable and honest about what I could and couldn't do during that season really helped set me up for success. Rather than trying to juggle everything, trying to please everybody, while I also did the hardest thing, I kind of put everything else to the side during that season. I kind of said, okay, this is number one priority. Jess and I both did it and we went full time with barbies. We poured fully into it and have those kind of honest, hopefully loving conversations.
And then it paid off because we were able to do the thing, I think, to a level of excellence that both of us are so proud of. And I think the best that we could have done with what we had at the moment. And so I think it's not bullshitting your reasons why you have to jump into the big thing, just doing it. If people don't understand, people are going to get their feelings hurt. Right?
But at the end of the day, for people who love you, they're going to support you and they're going to go, all right, I understand it. This is just a season. You've got to bet on yourself for this.
[01:28:36] Speaker B: Totally, super amazing, totally, perfectly said. Jess, any thoughts on that? About anything we just talked about? Because I'm talking about a ball flying through the air. I'm giving a lot of analogies. We covered a lot of stuff.
[01:28:49] Speaker C: Any thoughts on my life story?
[01:28:51] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh. Well, and that's why I kind of top of this call. I was like, I feel like I've been part of this journey even though I've never that you are. I mean, you know how it feels. Like the. You end up following people on Instagram or something, like, you know, an influencer or somebody who, you know, even, like, a friend of a friend or something. You follow somebody on Instagram and all one day you're like, my friend, so and so. And it's like, I don't even know that person. What am I? Or a character on a show? And you're like, who? You know, you start to think of them as, like, an integral part of your life, and it's like, you.
I've never even met you until today. And I'm like, you've been. You've been a character in my life. And just so, you know, influential in not just Willow's life, but it's like, like she said, it's like we pulled out the stops. We pulled out all the stops about, like, what, you know, every part of our background. It's like, I had pitching experience. Willow has, like, extensive public speaking and leadership training and presenting herself in kind of that media training side, like, of the talking to large groups of people. And so it's like, we pulled out all the stops, and your lessons were just pivotal and all that. But, yeah, it's been such a cool journey to sit on the sidelines of it. I'm very appreciative for you, and I've had my own people that have rallied behind me, but I'm just. Because I've had my own. I'm so grateful for the people who have done that for Willow, too. It's like, who have gave us the starts to be able to kind of pursue two things at once, and then when one took off, run with it. But, yeah, I was just. I was thinking about the question you just asked Willow about, you know, advice for people who might be afraid, and I think to launch into their own thing. And I was thinking about how, you know, when you're excited about the next chapter and, like. Like Willow was, I think that that comes off as so genuine. Like, I think a lot of people are afraid to, like, quit jobs, and a lot of people are afraid to, like, to jump into things, even though that they have something really, really cool coming up next. And it's, like, showcasing your excitement and showing that you're so excited about the thing that is coming up next is so genuine, and it gets people on board and to rally behind you even in situations where you're leaving are really a situation that you might be sad about. And as an employer or an employee, you can be excited for them and be happy for them. And I think that. Yeah, that's been a big part of. Part of our story with that.
[01:31:14] Speaker B: Totally.
All right, well, as we're heading towards the close of the conversation, is there anything that either one of you want to bring up? Anything that you want to talk about? Any ideas or anything you want to ask me?
[01:31:27] Speaker C: Jess, what if you wanted to ask a ram, for the last five years.
[01:31:31] Speaker A: What'S your favorite mocktail around?
[01:31:36] Speaker B: What did we have for our wedding, babe?
[01:31:41] Speaker C: Passion fruit, ginger lime.
[01:31:44] Speaker B: Passion fruit, ginger lime. What did we end up calling it? The palm zing.
[01:31:50] Speaker C: The palm zing. Okay, good.
[01:31:52] Speaker B: Because we got married in Palm Springs.
[01:31:54] Speaker C: Yeah, the palm zing.
[01:31:55] Speaker B: Oh, no. We called it the palm zinger. That was it. The palm zinger.
[01:31:58] Speaker C: Did it have kombucha? I can't remember. What did we decide on?
[01:32:01] Speaker B: Did it have kombucha?
Lime juice.
Lime juice. And ginger beer.
[01:32:08] Speaker C: Ginger beer. Were you. You were the ginger lover and Monica was the passion fruit, right?
[01:32:13] Speaker B: Monica's the ginger lover. I'm the passion fruit lover.
[01:32:16] Speaker C: I mixed up. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. I knew we mixed it for some reason. Yeah.
[01:32:20] Speaker B: Yeah. That. That would be my favorite. Was super good. It was a huge hit. We had a total blast with it.
[01:32:25] Speaker A: All right, well, that. That's what I've been dying to know.
[01:32:30] Speaker B: Really good. I also, like, I laugh how, like, you have this. You've launched this bartending thing that I'm so psyched on, even though I don't drink. Like, that's amazing. I'm so proud of you guys. And I don't touch a drop of alcohol.
[01:32:45] Speaker C: No, I know. And even just supporting us through Covid, you. Y'all did several virtual cocktail classes with us. At least with me, I clapped the team, and that was so fun.
[01:32:54] Speaker B: We. We wanted to support you guys. All right, so as we're heading the last part of the. Of the conversation, we're going to go into the crucial three. I'm going to ask the two of you three increasingly difficult questions. Okay, you ready to go?
[01:33:07] Speaker A: Ready to go.
[01:33:09] Speaker B: Okay, the first question is, have you encountered any negativity or pushback at any stage of the business?
And I mean, like, not, like, business challenges, but I mean, like, negativity, pushback, toxicity, anything like that? And if so, how did you handle it?
[01:33:27] Speaker C: Hmm.
[01:33:29] Speaker A: They get harder from this.
[01:33:32] Speaker C: I mean, Covid, it completely shut our business down. It shut down our original model. And so I think it was. It was not necessarily negativity coming from one person. It was the world's negativity, the environment of the world, that completely shut us down. I mean, we had an entire calendar of events, weddings that were on the books, that every single one of them canceled, and every single one of them wanted their deposits back. And when you're dealing with a year and a half of business under your belt, right, and a world that is seemingly shut down, and you're in the events industry. I mean, Jess and I really were like, okay, this might not be our career. This might not be what we do.
And it was virtual classes. Someone started asking. One person asked for. They needed a 21st birthday party, virtual class. And we said, sure, yeah, we'll do that. That sounds great. And that's what started the iteration of what Barbie's is today. And so I think it was just saying yes to whatever people wanted, because we were like, sure, let's just. This business isn't what we made it, so we'll say yes to whatever you want us to be right now, because we're trying to figure out how to survive in this world.
[01:34:45] Speaker A: I think when we started our company, a lot of people were really confused.
Like, what? Like, you're starting an.
I mentioned this earlier. My parents don't really drink. My mom definitely doesn't drink. And, you know, we have a lot of non drinkers in our lives for various reasons.
And I think a lot of people were like, you're college educated. You know, you're. For me, you're on track for, like, law school or whatever. You know, you've got, like, your college. Like, what are you doing? Why you're. You're bartending. Like, that's an interesting. You know, and not. We love bartenders, and it's not that, but it's just, like, you're you. We just, you know, helped you spend all this money for a degree or for this degree. What are you doing? And I think that's when we became great. Like, that's when we became convincing, and that's when we became salespeople, because it's like we had to pitch it to a few people in our lives who are now totally on board and grateful. We had the pushback to, like, learn that skill, but that's what we had to learn how to sell ourselves, I think.
[01:35:47] Speaker B: Hell, yeah. Oh, yeah. That both of them are. Both of them are great. But, Jess, I am laughing super hard at that one. Like, for all sorts of reasons. I could just imagine the conversation. Like, we just spent, like, tens of thousands of dollars, and this is what you're gonna do. Like, what are you doing?
What are you gonna say, willow?
[01:36:03] Speaker C: You'll love this around my sweet Nana, my favorite person in the entire world to this day, five years in, just as we talk, we talk all the time. Every, every couple of months. Just double checks. Now, you don't, you don't get people drunk, right?
They're just, they don't ever feel the alcohol, right? No, Nana, they just enjoy. It's just about learning. It's just edutainment. That's all it is. Nana, don't worry.
[01:36:34] Speaker B: All right, second question. This is a bit of a vulnerable one, so, you know, take your time with it.
Being an entrepreneur is fun and amazing and hard and difficult, and you got to work your butt off, and it's got the highs and the lows, as I believe Jesse said earlier on.
But one of the things about being an entrepreneur is you learn a lot about yourself, a ton about yourself. So for each of you, what is one thing that you've learned about yourself that you did not know before you started barbies and that you realize about yourself and you haven't liked, you didn't like it about yourself and you've had to work on to overcome or address.
[01:37:14] Speaker A: I mentioned this earlier about some of the misconceptions about being a business owner is that you have, I think you go into it thinking people have total autonomy of their own at any moment. They're flexible and autonomous of their schedules. I think there's a lot of misconceptions there, and I think it's a daily battle for me. But especially recently, I have felt this, like, this kind of time management struggle, like, and it's like, because I, you know, I just feel like I'm doing so much, and it's like I have a hard time carving out time to be creative and I have a hard time. And it's like this constant battle and push with myself that I'm like, you know, I think there's a lot about entrepreneurship I like, but I think the, like, having to be completely in charge of my own time and schedule and be accountable to, like, myself and to willow, but, you know, like, to myself. And I think that that's been really hard for me. And it's becoming. Sometimes. Some days I feel like it's harder than others, and it's like it's been this constant struggle, and I don't like that. It's like, it's one of those things where I'm like, I've been at this for five and a half years. Why is this not easy? Like, why am I still feeling like I'm clawing back at time, trying to get my own time back, but it's a grind. Like, entrepreneurship's a grind. And I think that I've had to find grace for myself to be like, okay, well, look, this eternal battle you've had with time, you've been able to figure out a whole lot in that time. But, yeah, I think that's been a recent struggle of mine.
[01:38:47] Speaker B: Okay, how about you, Willow?
[01:38:49] Speaker C: I think that my capacity for people is smaller than I've always been told it is or felt like it needed to be.
And I think I started in being a very much people person, a charismatic person. It's very easy to push me in front of people and to be the face of things. And in the last few years, as the business has grown and I was working two jobs, I got really, really tired of that, the people facing piece, and I started to have this identity crisis because I was like, people are my thing. I can't get tired of people. People are my thing. I know people. I know how to connect with people. I know how to talk to people. I can't be tired of people. Stop being tired of people.
And I went through the last, Jess, you know, we've talked about this a lot where I used to, or at least I thought I used to have this just unending energy for people and activity and back to back things and stimulation and the last few years, maybe I'm just describing aging. Aging. I don't. I don't really know. Maybe that's what this is. But I just.
I've had to learn how to say yes to the right people engagements and no to the wrong ones and not just think, oh, you're good at people. Say yes to every possible people engagement you could ever be a part of.
And I think, aram, you and I had some conversations about this, too, as my role changed at cadence because I shared a little bit with you where it just. I was burning out. I was burning out. And connection with people felt like it had to be put on and it had to be a professional skill rather than something that just oozed out of me, because I've just always been a people person, where connectivity just was natural for me. And when I started to feel that it was a professional skill and not my. My natural energy anymore, I started hating it in myself. And I would hear, you know, that voice you put on when you just aren't feeling it at all, but you have to just step up and do the thing. And I didn't want to do that anymore. And part of adjusting that was just saying no tomorrow. As much as we've been talking about saying yes this whole time, because this company was built up. Both companies were built on yes for personal longevity. Saying no to certain things in personal professional life has been so huge for me, and a lot of it has been, no, I can't teach that cocktail class right now. I do not have the energy for it. Nope. I actually can't lead this team meeting. Let's hand it off to the ops team right now. No, I can't do these certain things where it's just playing to your strengths and letting the natural, not stifling your natural skill set because you feel you have to show up with your natural skill set at all times. You got to give your natural skill set a rest sometimes. So I'm still learning to balance it.
[01:41:36] Speaker B: Totally. Totally. All right, last question. It's the opposite question. So through this process, what is something you've learned about yourself through doing barbies that you absolutely love about yourself and that you feel so good about and you're proud about? So what's a diamond about you that you've discovered that you're so, so proud to say that that's. That's a part of you? So, Jess, you went last time. We'll start with Willow. Willow, what's. What's something you've learned about yourself that you're really proud of yourself for?
[01:42:08] Speaker C: I love building a team. It has been the joy of building barbies. I thought, again, being a people person, it was going to be clients. Let me be the face of this in the sales world. I kind of just hate that.
I love pouring my energy and my people skills into my team.
I kind of was a big part of building up our training program for onboarding and, you know, creating all the content for that. And I loved it. In fact, it was, it was kind of, I jumped into it and, you know, Jess and I did it together, but I said, hey, I can kind of lead the charge on this. I actually really like this, this piece. And I love building a culture that people like working in. I like building curriculum for people that help them feel really well educated to represent our business. Right.
And it's been such a fun thing to exercise and let other people focus on their strengths and be that outward face while I get to kind of, you know, look at our team and pour into them and love on them because, oh, my gosh, they're just so fun. It's so fun to, like, build up those relationships that stay, you know, rather than, you know, that, that client that comes and goes, you know, they come and go, you give them a smile, but your team, they're there. They're who you pour into.
[01:43:16] Speaker A: I've kind of, through business ownership and then through specifically the shark tank process, I've found that I've kind of almost found a new passion of mine, and it's almost like digging up an old passion, but it's, I'm, I had the chance a couple weeks ago to, I just recently moved to, back to West Palm Beach, Florida, which is where I grew up. And I had a chance that I had a chance to help my high school. The school that I went, I actually went there k through twelve.
They have a really phenomenal business program with the same teacher who was there when I was there is there now, and it's actually her last year. But I was able to go back this spring and help them refine their, they did their own shark tank. And so I went in and I went in and coached them on their pitches. Kind of the first minute, minute and a half of their spiel, I went in and coached them and it was really hard on them. I was like, I went in and I bullied them a little bit. Like we got bullied, but I was just so proud because I was helping them at the workshop stage. And then I went in and I was a shark for them a couple weeks later. And while they went back to their classrooms and worked on it with their teachers and worked on it with each other and workshop each other. And I think I've just dug up this old passion of my where I love high school students and I love pitching businesses. And this is something that we've done. And I think, yeah, it's just, it's kind of become this focus of mine where I'm just like, how can I make a bigger impact with this? You know, how can I, how can I help people not necessarily coach them for pitches? While I would love to do that, but it's also like, help them refine their businesses and be confident in their business, especially in those early stages, whether they're trying to raise money or just trying to get people on board.
And I've just loved that. I found a lot of joy and a lot of gratification in that.
[01:45:11] Speaker B: Heck yeah. That's awesome. All right, well, we have done it. We've completed our interview. Thank you both so much for giving us your time. Any last words, anything you want to share as we're signing off?
[01:45:22] Speaker C: Just want to thank you Aram. Thank you all for having us. Thanks for pouring into me. And then, you know, by proxy, also pouring into Jess the last five years. And if any listeners want to book a class with us, we're located in ten cities nationwide. And if you're not in our ten cities, we're virtual. So we'd love to shake things up with, with the one step beyond listeners.
[01:45:42] Speaker B: Yeah. And we'll make sure that we put all of that information in the bio page for the episode. So if anyone wants to check it out, just check out all the links below and definitely do it. Our team has had several virtual classes with them and they have been totally awesome. Jess, any last words as we're signing off?
[01:45:58] Speaker A: Nope, that's it. I really, really appreciate you having us today. This has been such a good conversation.
[01:46:04] Speaker B: Heck yeah. You are both awesome. Barbies is amazing. And I just know you're both going to go on to do such incredible things. And I'm not just excited for what you're going to do with Barbies, but I know both of you are probably going to go on to be serial entrepreneurs that go on to do more and more and more things. So I'm excited for all that. So, everybody, I hope you got so much out of this episode. Again, as an employer and an entrepreneur, it's so amazing to have talented people come work for your company and stay. That's incredible. But it's also incredible to have people come in and add. Add their special thing to the company and then go on to build something of their own. This, for me, has just been such a. I've gotten to be like, part of the story, but also like a witness to the story. Or I could get to be the audience because I got to see how the company was built and where they're going. And I just learned so much myself from everything they've done. So with that, I hope you got as much out of this episode as I did. And we'll see you next time on on one step beyond.
[01:46:58] Speaker C: One step.
One step.
One step beyond.
